The Literary Review’s ‘bad sex’ award has been cancelled because, its organisers say, the public has already been exposed to “too many bad things in 2020”. The prize for “unconvincing, perfunctory, embarrassing or redundant passages of a sexual nature in sound literary novels” will resume next year. In the meantime, the judges warned authors not to take the cancellation as a “licence to write bad sex”.
Whale frolics near Statue of Liberty
A humpback whale has been spotted in waters around the Statue of Liberty, One World Trade Center and other iconic landmarks off New York harboir. “It’s a bit of a silver lining with COVID that there’s not much boat traffic out here, and the whale has a very good chance of getting out into the ocean,” said an expert. More than a dozen humpback whales have been detected in New York waters in recent years.
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Michael Jackson’s monkey destroyed vocal booth
Bubbles, Michael Jackson’s famous monkey, disrupted the recording of Beat It with a dirty protest, reports the Daily Express. A guitarist present at the recording said Jackson “stopped bringing [Bubbles] to the studio because he tore apart the vocal booth and threw s**t against the wall at Westlake Audio”. He added: “Man, that monkey just ripped that f**king vocal booth to shreds.”
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The dazzling coral gardens of Raja AmpatThe Week Recommends Region of Indonesia is home to perhaps the planet’s most photogenic archipelago.
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‘Never more precarious’: the UN turns 80The Explainer It’s an unhappy birthday for the United Nations, which enters its ninth decade in crisis
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Trump’s White House ballroom: a threat to the republic?Talking Point Trump be far from the first US president to leave his mark on the Executive Mansion, but to critics his remodel is yet more overreach
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Home Office worker accused of spiking mistress’s drink with abortion drugSpeed Read Darren Burke had failed to convince his girlfriend to terminate pregnancy
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In hock to Moscow: exploring Germany’s woeful energy policySpeed Read Don’t expect Berlin to wean itself off Russian gas any time soon
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Were Covid restrictions dropped too soon?Speed Read ‘Living with Covid’ is already proving problematic – just look at the travel chaos this week
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Inclusive Britain: a new strategy for tackling racism in the UKSpeed Read Government has revealed action plan setting out 74 steps that ministers will take
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Sandy Hook families vs. Remington: a small victory over the gunmakersSpeed Read Last week the families settled a lawsuit for $73m against the manufacturer
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Farmers vs. walkers: the battle over ‘Britain’s green and pleasant land’Speed Read Updated Countryside Code tells farmers: ‘be nice, say hello, share the space’
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Motherhood: why are we putting it off?Speed Read Stats show around 50% of women in England and Wales now don’t have children by 30
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Anti-Semitism in America: a case of double standards?Speed Read Officials were strikingly reluctant to link Texas synagogue attack to anti-Semitism
